Ziplining!

Last summer when Chad and I were celebrating our BIG birthdays, I had an idea to do something fun and exciting, like ziplining! But no matter how exciting it would have been, it wouldn't have been fun because it was so horribly hot here all summer. Chad and I finally got the chance to visit a zipline course about an hour from home earlier this month. We had it all planned out- my mom was going to be here to stay with the girls all day (thanks Nana!), the forecast was great, and we were looking forward to going out to eat kid-free afterwards. But the longer we drove to get there, the more nervous I got! And when we arrived, put on our gear and heard the safety speech, I was feeling quite nervous and wondered why I thought it would be fun in the first place. Maybe it was the part about how you could lose a finger if you braked wrong.

Safety. It's not always pretty.

Everyone had a brief test run just a few feet off the ground, then they loaded us into a vehicle that looked like it may have come from (the TV show) M*A*S*H, drove us up the big hill, and led us up further on a hike. By that point I was not nervous so much as slightly out of breath. Then... 

Off you go!

Coming in for a landing, with all ten fingers.

Here comes Chad! (Who, by the way, was not at all nervous, but did not tease me.) 

Me & my sweetie 

Once we got going it was really fun! And after one successful landing I was not nervous anymore. We went on a total of eight ziplines; they ranged in length and distance off the ground but were all fun! It's hard to think about stressful things when you are flying through the air- you are just taking in the scenery and watching for the signal to brake. I think it was just what we needed- to get away from the kids, the house and normal life and have fun together. Now that it's a little easier to leave our kids for a while, we are looking forward to many more adventures together.